1. Autopilot ruins BPM sync 2. Value of external midi clock is not stable

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EetuLehmusvaara
Met Resolume in a bar the other day
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1. Autopilot ruins BPM sync 2. Value of external midi clock is not stable

Post by EetuLehmusvaara »

Hi!

I had a beautiful dream about "automatic VJ setup" where DJ can play music freely and midi data is transferring the tempo to Resolume which lunches clips automatically in a way that transitions match to music.

To do this I use rtpMidi to transfear midi data from Ableton live to Resolume via ethernet cable and I have set Resolume´s clips to BPM mode and autopilot on.

But my dreams have crashed in two ways:
Firstly value of external midi clock is not stable. For example for 120BPM the value goes continuously from 100 to 140 and won´t ewer find the exact number. For some circumstances this can be acceptable, but the second problem is that the autopilot really ruins BPM sync. So after few transition between clips it has already miss the tempo and I have to hit resync button to make it right.

Is there something which I have done wrong or is the software broken in this way?

Regards, Eetu L

HI5
Hasn't felt like this about software in a long time
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Re: 1. Autopilot ruins BPM sync 2. Value of external midi clock is not stable

Post by HI5 »

Also use AP and MIDI Clock and do not have these probs.
The Clock values i recive are much tighter.

I prefer manual Tapping but if i want a clock ill get it from the club mixer
MIDI Out to my Audi Interface MIDI In. It fluctuates but not that much.

I also used IP MIDI for clock over LAN & LoopBe1 for internal routing.

They all were tighter than the fluctuation u dirscribe.


Make sure u have not set a transition time.


I hope for abelton Sync in long terms. It got already implemented for my NI Auido Software and love it.


Btw. There are some resolume settings for midi clock to correspond with different software. Did u check that?
I used it with the Traktor setting

EetuLehmusvaara
Met Resolume in a bar the other day
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2016 16:36

Re: 1. Autopilot ruins BPM sync 2. Value of external midi clock is not stable

Post by EetuLehmusvaara »

What do you mean by AP?

In this case, unfortunately, we don´t have change to get midi from club mixer, but it is good to know that in that way you get better results! :)

And I have tried ipMidi also, but accuracy remains the same. Results are good enough at lower BPM, but after 120bpm things get really bad. Is this something which I just have to accept?

But this autopilot case is interesting:
Single videos play at right tempo when set to BPM mode. For example, if I set the length of video to 2 beats, the video loops at right tempo next ten minutes if needed. But If I do the same setup for 3 clips and set Autopilot on for these clips, the clips seems to play faster. Difference is not big but ofcourse after 10 seconds videos miss the beat.
Do developers have something to say about this? For me this seems to be a bug. I am using Resolume Arena 5.1.2.

HI5, I haven´t seen any software specific settings in Resolume? And actually Ableton was just test software, so ideally this concept should work with any midi-out software.

Joris
Doesn't Know Jack about VJ'ing or Software Development and Mostly Just Gets Coffee for Everyone
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Re: 1. Autopilot ruins BPM sync 2. Value of external midi clock is not stable

Post by Joris »

You are setting each video to play back in 2 beats, regardless of its original length. It's not realistic to expect exact results when you alter the tempo this much. You are pulling the playback speed out of proportion.

The calculation of the autopilot trigger is set to cue on the last frame that the video will display at its current speed. At normal speed, this will be the last frame, at 2x speed this will be the 2nd to last frame etc. When you adjust the tempo so much by setting the clip to 2 beats regardless of clip length, the autopilot cue goes out of whack. There's just no way to get the correct frame at such speeds.

It's better to leave the clips at their default beat value. This is the amount of beats so that clip play back at 120 BPM matches the original speed as much as possible, into exponents of 2 beats (1 beat, 2 beats, 4 beats, 8 beats, 16 beats etc).

When leaving clips at their original beat value, I've tested the autopilot on BPM Synced clips. After 10 minutes, clips were still triggering exactly on the first beat (all of my clips were 4 beats in length or more).

If you want to change the clip with a higher frequency, adjust their outpoint accordingly. This will also make your content look better, as it's not sped up to Benny Hill levels. Or you could look into an external sequencer that just sends out triggers whenever you want to change the visual.

HI5
Hasn't felt like this about software in a long time
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Re: 1. Autopilot ruins BPM sync 2. Value of external midi clock is not stable

Post by HI5 »

What do you mean by AP?
Autopilot
after 120bpm things get really bad. Is this something which I just have to accept?
Nope my clock fluctuates in 0.X range (which is normal) u have mini fluctuations all the time but if there is a fluctuation of more than 0.5 BPM there is sth wrong with your clock. It does not matter if i use a 60BPM or 140BPM track.
HI5, I haven´t seen any software specific settings in Resolume? And actually Ableton was just test software, so ideally this concept should work with any midi-out software.
Preferences > MIDI > MIDI Middle C setting (bottom)
I've set it to Middle C = C4 (For Traktor)
Abelton setting should be C = C3

U have to take care of your clock before u can expect anything tight from resolume.

HI5
Hasn't felt like this about software in a long time
Posts: 82
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2016 17:34
Location: Cologne

Re: 1. Autopilot ruins BPM sync 2. Value of external midi clock is not stable

Post by HI5 »

In this case, unfortunately, we don´t have change to get midi from club mixer, but it is good to know that in that way you get better results!
I only do it when im too lazy to Tap the beats myself and check my work from the bar and dancefloor.
The nice thing about it is that everything that goes into the club mixer is covered.
No matter where the signal comes from.

Bad thing is: You need a audio interface or sth. else to plug in and receive the clock. DJs can stop it or change the value by accident. Sometimes the mixers are doing crazy interpretations of a BPM value....

The results on fluctuation are not better in this case.

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